The covered billiard table with seating clearance for dining generally relates to billiard tables and more specifically to a billiard table that has a high side clearance for a seated person's legs to fit comfortably beneath the table.
For over a century, people have played billiards, pool, snooker, and related games on tables. In the games, particularly billiards, phenolic balls are hit, with the tip of a cue stick, across a table to another ball which falls into a pocket or the ball itself enters the pocket for score. From earlier times, billiards has been played in halls of sufficient size to accommodate numerous tables. Each table has at least two pieces of slate installed horizontal with an overall size approximately four foot wide by eight foot long. The table has sidewalls that have bumpers for containing the balls upon the table during play and pockets at strategic locations for scoring opportunities. The sidewalls generally descend below the level of the slate, or tabletop, and conceal the framework and ball handling equipment. In pool halls and billiard parlors, the buildings are large enough and tables spaced apart so players can walk readily around a single table or between tables.
In more recent decades, people have played more and more billiards at home. Garages and particularly basements have had enough size to admit a billiard table. The tables are usually brought into the basement in pieces and assembled by select installers. The installers build the frame for the table and then install the slates, making sure the slates are level in both directions to within tolerances. Billiard tables have proved especially popular among the baby boom generation.
However, as billiard table owners sell a house or age, they often downsize their residences. More and more billiard table owners find themselves in condominiums, apartments, and small houses, some without basements. Some downsized residences have little room for a stand alone billiard table, let alone a billiard table and a dining room table.